


Night Frights

by TheWolfDemon



Series: That One Frightful Night [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-06-29 15:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19833265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWolfDemon/pseuds/TheWolfDemon
Summary: James Torshire was always a corrupted man, and a major enemy to Gretel Wolfstein. Numerous times had he tried to outwit Gretel using old fashioned spy maneuvers but always failing miserably in the end. This time he manages to lure her into a trap she can't escape, or so he thought. Instead of bringing part of the Splinter Cell Division, Gretel has been deployed to help the Irish Sanctuary and allies with Valkyrie and the rest of the gang. Together the trap has been sprung upon them all unknowingly. Torshire, slightly taken off guard now, still directs his evil intentions towards Gretel.Old, terrifying memories quickly plagued Gretel as she slowly recalls them through the night. This gives the crew better insight to her character more, particularly for Valkyrie. The two work together to help heal parts of the wounds left from a tragedy long ago. A tragedy that Gretel had failed to mention to Valkyrie and Skulduggery, and kept the scar well hidden.Six long, haunting hours is all it is. Can theyallsurvive the night?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own all the characters. Gretel Wolfstein and James Torshire are miy own original characters while the rest respectively are owned by Derek Landy and Scott Cawthon.

_They drove up to a tall, fancy black iron barred gate. The stone brick walls expanded a good distance in either direction. A camera had been mounted by the upper right side of the gate which now warned the owner of the property to the newcomers._

_The gates slowly opened and they drove on through …_

_The land that this man owned was not as big as the walls portrayed. Grant it, it was a nice size of property but the excitement of seeing something grand was not there. Not to mention, it was hard to distinguish if the building was a huge mansion or a really small castle._

_They took a small roadway to the left. The metal door hoisted up, allowing the truck to pull into the loading station. It was backed up to an upper concrete floor which upheld doors leading into the main portion of the structure. The driver cut the engine, and the two of them got out. The back truck door was lifted and a ramp was laid out. Then, they started to unload the requested artifacts …_

_The owner of the place walked in to see his incoming shipment. One crate was already placed near the door. He went over to it and ran a hand over its wooden texture, a small evil grin playing on his lips. The crate was big enough to fit a tall human in it with even extra room. The second crate was set next to it. He turned to look into the truck. There were two next to him, one being taken off of the truck, and another still on the truck. Four in total. Excellent. “And you have the suit as well?” the owner said in his English accent._

_“Yes sir,” said the driver as he and his partner placed the last two big crates down with the others, “Where do you want these?”_

_The owner led them to a big empty storage room in which the shipment was to be placed. He enjoyed as the two workers brought in the crates. “The suit?” the owner asked after the large artifacts were retrieved._

_“Right away sir,” the driver said, “Tim, go get the special request.”_

_Tim scurried out of the room and returned with a smaller crate, about a fourth of the size of the others. He laid it at the owner’s feet. Perfect. “Open it,” was the order. Tim got a crowbar and handed it to the driver. The crate was opened to expose its contents._

_“Just what you asked for, sir,” the driver said._

_The owner’s smile broadened wickedly. He bent down to touch the golden colored suit. He gazed at it for a while, like a child who just walked into the world’s largest toy store. Then his hand moved over to the mask and he picked it up …_


	2. Chapter 2

“Alright! That’s it! Either you come down here and let me beat your ass, or I’m coming up there to beat it for you!” Gretel called up the grand stairs.

He gave a laugh. “Oh Gretel, if only you’d know what you’d walked into …”

“I don’t care! I just want to beat your ass right now!” A few smug seconds went by before she asked, “And what exactly have I walked into?”

He did not say anything for a few seconds to add a dramatic effect. He was a handsome older English man with brown hair that had a few white streaks, and a mustache trying for a James Bond look. He wore casual tan pants, a white turtle neck shirt, and a shiny deep purple three-quarter length silk blazer. His name was James Torshire. “Well, I … guess you’ll have to wait and see, my little darling.”

Gretel’s temper flared. She went to go after him but Valkyrie held her back. “Don’t call me darling, you ass-“

“Oh! kay … Settle down there, Wolfy,” Valkyrie interrupted, pulling her close to her and wrapping an arm around her waist. Gretel reluctantly obeyed with a growl.

“Not to break up the friendly bonding, but what exactly have we walked into?” Skulduggery asked.

Torshire looked pathetically down at the group. There was of course Gretel, as well as Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Sanguine, Tanith, Ghastly, and Fletcher. A sad little mismatching group he thought. Originally his intentions were to lure Gretel alone to this place but his bait obviously attracted the rest. No matter, it would work one way or another in the end. “Oh you’ll see …” he checked his watch, “… and in not too long now.” He pristinely descended the stairs, reached the bottom, and headed for the double front doors. “Oh I wouldn’t try to escape if I were you,” he spoke as he casually walked through the group, not even worrying if anyone would tackle him to the ground, “The doors are magic resistant and impenetrable. The windows are as well. At midnight, certain lights shut off while others stay on; which, I admit, is not a whole lot, but enough to get from room to room on this main floor here.”

“So your plan on torturing us is by leaving us in here with the lights off? I fail to see how that’s torture,” Gretel remarked, “And I have many personal comments on that, but I will reserve them in my dirty little mind.”

“Please do…” Valkyrie begged.

“Oh, it’s not that you should really worry about the most,” Torshire continued, “It’s what’s lurking, or I should say, going to lurk, at night.” He reached the main doors. “After I leave and active the system to trap you all in here, you must try to find the one way out. Yes, there is a way out naturally. But it’s only one door, and one very specific door. That sort of takes the fun out of how you’ll all die but I’m more curious to see who will find the exit, who is in the majority to die the horrible death, and or who would just manage to survive till six in the morning.” He gave an evil grin.

“What? You’re unleashing a horde of vampires on us?” Gretel questioned, “I’ve alone survived a pack of thousands of them, and I killed every single one of them. By. My. Self. _With_ my bare hands might I add.”

“No, not vampires, but anyways congratulations on that. I know you’ll be the last to fight _these_ guys however.” Torshire turned to leave. Just as he went to open one of the doors, a thought came to him. He grinned to myself and turned to Gretel. “I find it amusing to not tell you anything about the surprise I have for you, but I find it more amusing to see the terror in you when you know what it is. So, I’ll give you a hint, Miss Wolfstein. A good proportion of the lights go off to _save energy_. There. I feel more satisfied now.” He opened a door.

“I don’t get it,” Gretel said bluntly.

“Need you another hint? I’m a bit shocked at this,” he said with a frown.

“Yes, I’m dying to know now. Matter of fact, I’m dying to know why you led us here to begin with.”

He gave a small chuckle. “If you think you can turn on the lights to kill the creatures, you’re going about this all wrong. I guess this’ll be a hint for you too, but light won’t kill them. Let’s just say your _shift starts at twelve and ends at six_. And looky here! It’s only an hour till it starts. And I must bid you good day. Or should I say, good … _night shift_?” He parted with that grin and closed the main doors, leaving them in the elegant foyer in eerie silence.

“What was that all about?’ Sanguine asked in his lazy Texan voice.

“I’m not sure, but I’m not sticking around here to find out. We need to find that exit and go after him,” Valkyrie said. “Hey, Gretel, you alright there?” She just took notice that Gretel’s temper had dropped suddenly and she had a quizzical yet worried look on her face.

“I’m fine,” she answered dully. “I still … uh, don’t quite get it …”

“Why don’t we go find these beasts before they find us,” Ghastly offered, slightly agitated.

“Yah, I’m with him on this one,” Sanguine agreed.

“But how will we know which door is our escape?” Fletcher asked, a bit panicked.

“Well if the door doesn’t eat you, then I guess we’ll know,” Gretel said regaining herself.

“Hey!”

“Although I think that would be considered food poisoning …” she mumbled. Skulduggery tried his best not to laugh and Valkyrie gave Gretel a slap upside the head. “What?!” she exclaimed.

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. “You and Skulduggery have been hanging around each other too much now.” With that, she led the way out of the foyer.

“There is no such thing,” Skulduggery responded following behind.

“And I don’t see any problem with it either,” Gretel said purposefully walking alongside him.

“There are lots of problems with that,” Valkyrie stated, “And this here ...” she gestured to the two of them walking side by side together, “is another problem that is now greatly worrying me.”

Skulduggery and Gretel looked at each other. “Nah,” they both said.

“And considering your choice three years ago,” Skulduggery added.

“Well … that was under different circumstances,” Valkyrie mumbled shoving her hands into her pockets.

“De-nial!” the two shouted.

“I hate you guys so much now …”

“Sadly enough, I do have to agree with them,” Tanith added.

“Tanith! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“I said sadly enough!”


	3. Chapter 3

They walked around the building for a while. Valkyrie was still not quite sure if this place was a mansion or castle. The exterior looked more like a mansion, while the interior was laid out more like a castle. However the place was tastefully decorated and neatly kept she had to admit, almost reminding her of her uncle’s house a bit.

Gretel and Skulduggery had been chatting the whole time, probably on how to torture her either now or afterwards. Not that they were occasionally taunting her as they searched through the mansion castle. She knew she had to worry when they suddenly talked quietly and huddled close together. It was like taking two children on a field trip. Thankfully Tanith decided to walk with her. She now at least had some back up if the two began taunting her again.

“Valk! …” came a mischievous cry from behind, followed by a chuckle.

“Yes? …” she responded unamused.

“Are we there yet?” There was another chuckle.

“Ask Skulduggery.”

“I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“Don’t you have treats in your pockets?”

“No. You ate them all yesterday at the park.”

“Ah come on! You didn’t restock?”

“You ate all the transportable food. Ask Skulduggery if he has something on him. Or Tanith.” Tanith shot Valkyrie a glare. “Pay back from earlier,” she said with a smirk.

“Far enough,” Tanith said. She turned to Gretel. “And no, I don’t have food either.”

“Why not!” Gretel whined. “You’re the designated mother figure! You’re supposed to magically have everything!” 

Tanith raised an eyebrow. “I have a sword that will solve your complaining and making smart remarks like that.”

Gretel giggled.

“You’re a werewolf, and you’re a werewolf walking next to a skeleton. I think finding a snack would be no problem,” Valkyrie added.

Gretel slowly turned to Skulduggery with an evil grin.

“Don’t even …” he warned dryly.

Gretel playfully glared at him with the most adorable mean expression.

“And no, I don’t have anything one me either. To quote Valkyrie, ‘you ate all of it’.”

“Now I’m gonna be hangry!” Gretel whined.

“Don’t make me come back there!” Valkyrie lazily called back.

“And what?!”

“It’s not going to be pretty!”

“I doubt.”

“Don’t test me.”

“I rebel!”

“Will you just shut up!” Ghastly yelled. Everyone stopped and looked at him. “How much are you going to complain?! That Torshire bloke has got away and we need to find him! All we have to do for that is find the bloody door! How hard is that? This isn’t a time to stroll along and chatter! Let’s get this over with!”

There was a pause where everyone glared at him, except Sanguine who had no idea about the group’s way of bonding and Fletcher who never saw Ghastly so explosive over something like this. Gretel was the one to glare at him the most viciously. “Do I annoy you to no end?” she asked dead serious and in a defensive manner.

“Yes!”

“Good.”

“Ghastly …” Tanith started.

“Don’t even try!” He warned, raising a hand.

“What’s gotten into you lately?”

“Tanith, now is not the time.”

“I think you owe us all an explanation later,” Valkyrie said irritably, once again leading them on.

Ghastly sighed heavily and tagged along in the back of the group.

Skulduggery protectively pulled Gretel close to him and leaned in to talk to her. He spoke in a low soft tone with a hint of irritably, which now seemed to be the common theme. “Why don’t you go and hang with Valkyrie and Tanith for now. I’ll handle Ghastly for you.”

“I can handle myself,” Gretel said defensively.

“Don’t be defensive. I know you can. This isn’t about honor or anything like that. I can sort of talk to him when he’s in moods. It’s similar to how Valkyrie and I can talk you out of them.”

There was a small growl for a response.

“Go on now,” he said, reassuringly ushering her towards the girls' direction. Gretel stubbornly kept walking at the distance he pushed her. “Gretel …” She did not listen. “Temper.” She still continued where she was at. He sighed. “You’re more stubborn than Valkyrie …” he muttered to himself.

“I got it, Skulduggery,” Tanith intervened. “Gretel, come here.” Still she did not listen. “Come here!” she repeated a little aggressively. Gretel glared at her.

Valkyrie grinned, and turned to make a gesture towards Gretel. Gretel obeyed by catching up with them.

“I hate you,” Tanith remarked.

“Love you to,” Valkyrie said, her grin widening. She draped an arm over Gretel’s shoulder and pulled her into a half hug knowing it would help dampen her temper. Tanith did the same.

Admitting defeat, Gretel laid her head on Valkyrie’s shoulder. An appreciated grin formed on her lips. She basked in the feeling of sudden intimacy for a few moments before she asked, “Can we raid the fridge?”

“No!” Valkyrie, Tanith, and Skulduggery said in unison.

“You guys are no fun …”

“Am I crazy or am I missing a lot of what’s bein’ said lately?” Sanguine blurred out.

“No need to tell us you’re crazy, we already knew that,” Gretel said. Valkyrie slapped her upside the head. She laughed. 

Sanguine went to say something but Skulduggery sharply turned his head in his direction. “Fine! I can wait.”

“It’s better if you don’t know the situation,” Ghastly said miserably.

“Why?” Sanguine questioned.

“Trust me, you just don’t.”

By now, it was past midnight. They continued on in silence until they came to some sort of storage area. Most of the rooms were completely empty while the ones that were filled had high tech equipment stored in them. Some of it was identifiable, others not. Since they have arrived in this area, everything seemed to be eerily quiet and still all of a sudden. No monsters came out to attack them and there was no sign of any around. No one dared to speak despite that. The atmosphere just seemed heavy now. Everything seemed to be … out of place.

Gretel had remained quiet which was nothing unusual, however Valkyrie examined her. She was subtly too quiet. Something was wrong. Something seemed off. Looking into her eyes, something was haunting her …

They rounded a corner and stopped dead. At the other end of the corridor was a figure. It was big, and yellow, and it looked humanoid at this angle. Its back was towards them.

“No …” Gretel whispered to herself, frozen to the spot.


	4. Chapter 4

No one made a move. Valkyrie looked over at her and for the first time in her life she witnessed Gretel expressing pure terror.

Gretel felt the color drain from her skin and her heart rate increase, her blood pressure throbbing in tempo with it. Her heart pounded against her chest but the sound seemed to be coming from her head. Her tiredness instantly vanished in a split second to give way to adrenaline based alertness that pumped throughout her body at high speed. Her dilated eyes locked onto the figure as to never dare to look away, and she began hyperventilating. Her mind raced through many thoughts forwards, backwards, sideways, jumping around … yet despite that, she kept it focused on one thing and one thing only: the yellow mechanical figure. She was at the ready to spring into action when deemed. All it would take was one sudden slight move or a sudden noise. Cold sweat began to drip down her face.

Valkyrie watched as Gretel’s hands began to shake. It gradually increased in intensity and soon moved up to her arms. She then watched as her neck muscles and jaw began to quiver. Tears threatened to spill out of Gretel’s eyes.

“What is that?” Tanith whispered.

“Ch- Chica …” Gretel shakily replied.

“What’s a Chica?”

She did not reply. She could not. She felt completely paralyzed, silently freaking out. On the inside she flailed, screamed, cried, and begged. Phantom pain shot through a well-hidden scar from long ago. Her mind was numb, horrible memories flashing through it. She could remember it all as clear as day. That one horrible day, and those frightful nights that followed …

The figure just stood there with its back to them, oblivious to their presence. All it would take was just the slightest move … The figure turned its head a little to the left.

“NO!” Gretel bellowed stepping back, pushing aside anyone in her way. Anytime she made contact with anyone as she moved backwards, her body would unnaturally recoil and twitch with fear. “NO!” she kept calling out.

The figured slowly swiveled its head to their direction, as if caught by surprise. Then its torso twisted around, the rest of its mechanical body following seconds later. Turns out it was an oversized, human-like yellow chicken with creepy purple eyes, orange feet, and an oddly small bib that had ‘Let’s Eat!’ on it. It stood there and stared at them.

“NO!” Gretel continued yelling, stumbling backwards and plastering herself to the wall. It made a sudden move and ran towards them. For the very first time everyone heard her let out a legitimate scream as she bolted down the corridor to her right at full speed. That was also the fastest they had ever seen her run.

It was surprisingly a little quick for its awkward figure, but Skulduggery managed to push at the air and fling the figure backwards. It immediately got up and lunged at them again. It reached Valkyrie first and pinned her to the wall, screaming some sort of mechanical sound into her face. Ghastly swung and knocked the mechanical creature away from her. In an instant it was back up and went after Ghastly. Skulduggery threw a ball of fire at it, but it failed to set it on fire. Tanith had unsheathed her sword and began swinging at the animatronic but to no affect. Sanguine joined her with his switch blade. Neither of them seemed to phase it. Each time one of their blades made contact it just bounced right off. 

It kept trying to grab anyone that came close. At one point it had caught a hold of Valkyrie and went to drag her off somewhere, but Skulduggery naturally had come to the rescue. Tanith used her sword, Sanguine his switch blade, and Skulduggery, Ghastly, and Valkyrie kept switching between their fists and magic. Fletcher had teleported off somewhere into one of the storage rooms they had been in earlier when things had first got out of hand but then guiltily returned, trying to use his magic to aid in the fight but not really helping. The struggle continued on for a bit until shadows wrapped themselves around the animatronic and heaved it up in the air. If it could express emotions, it probably would be confused. It floated over them with a killing look, suspended in midair by the shadows. Valkyrie had her hand held out, curled with a ball of black shadows in her palm with tendrils that flowed towards the animatronic in a slithering fashion.

“What the hell is that?!” Sanguine exclaimed.

“A bloody malfunctioning robot if you ask me,” Ghastly said bitterly, getting up off the ground.

It stared down at them with those creepy killer eyes, motionless.

“Do I see teeth?” Tanith asked examining the threat.

“I don’t think chickens are supposed to have teeth,” Fletcher said meekly.

“Maybe it’s a military drone of some sort?” Sanguine tried to suggest.

“What should we do with it?” Ghastly asked. “If we put it down, it’ll try to kill us.”

“If that’s what you want to call what it was trying to do,” Valkyrie said. “I’d hurry up and make a choice because I can’t hold onto these shadows any longer.”

“It’s obvious we have to destroy,” Skulduggery said, “But how?”

“I can tear it apart with the shadows?” Valkyrie offered.

“How will we know that it wouldn’t piece itself together?” Fletcher asked nervously. “It already seems magic resistant since every time you throw fire at it it fails to go up in flames.”

“The boy’s got a good point. Even my blade didn’t make a dent,” Sanguine added. 

“We’ll take a chance,” Skulduggery stated. “Valkyrie, if you wouldn’t mind.”

At that, Valkyrie used the shadows to tear the animatronic into metal bits. The remains fell to the floor into well torn pieces and landed into a scattered pile. Everyone stared at the heap for a few seconds, contemplating on what just happened.

“Do you think it has any more magical properties?” Fletcher asked.

Skulduggery bent down to examine some of the pieces “No, looks normal to me. So it shouldn’t piece itself back together if that’s what you’re wondering. A curious thing is was though.”

“Now we have to find Gretel,” Valkyrie said.

“Yes, we don’t know how many there are in here, and we don’t know what all they’re capable of, which after what happened, doesn’t seem like much. Excuse my pun, but I’m dying to know why Gretel is deathly afraid of these things.”

“You’re a skeleton. You’re already dead.”

“Didn’t you just hear what I said?”

“She can’t outrun them, at least, not for long. Wolfy’s more built for strength than running. Unless she turns into a werewolf, in which she could probably rip them to tiny bits. I don’t think she would though. She’s too scared to transform as it seems.”

Skulduggery stood up. “But she seemed to be in quite the hurry just now. Adrenaline does do wonders in dire situations.”

Valkyrie glared at him. “Didn’t you just hear what I said,” she mocked.

“Don’t be cheeky.”

“She seems to know a little about them anyways,” Tanith added in.

“Yes, you’re quite right. She appears to be our only source of information at the moment.”

“It would best be if we find her then before they do,” Valkyrie suggested, getting a little worried.

“Indeed,” he responded with a nod. 

They all jogged down the corridor Gretel ran down earlier. It was a long shot, but they had to start somewhere. By now she could be hiding anywhere, or worse. Different types of thoughts ran through Valkyrie’s mind on might happen to Gretel. Then some of the clues came to together. She turned her jog into a run, Skulduggery soon following and then the others.

“I’ve never seen her so terrified,” Valkyrie panted as they pressed onward.

“Nor have I,” Skulduggery said.

“Normally nothing scares her like that.”

“I know. It’s very unlike her.”

“How does that English feller’s hint connect with these things?” Sanguine asked finding it hard to keep up.

“I don’t know, but Gretel would since he was obvious on directing them to her,” Skulduggery said.

“Also,” Valkyrie started, “I’ve heard her tell me about something that sounds similar to these things. Her nightmares … sometimes when I get her to tell me some of them, I think she described something like this. Also she has occasionally muttered something about ‘The Bite’.”

“Do tell me more about these nightmares of hers then,” Skulduggery said sounding like this was the piece of evidence he was looking for all along.


End file.
